Drag&drop behavior differs from Windows, leads to data loss

Drag&drop behavior differs from Windows, leads to data loss

Drag&drop behavior differs from Windows standards and may lead to loss of data. In Windows, drag & dropping a file to a different disk will copy (duplicate) the file by default (press shift to move). WinSCP should do the same. Instead, WinSCP moves the file by default. If target application fails to handle the file, the file is lost. This is not acceptable. Aligning WinSCP behavior to Windows is safer, and more intuitive and consistent.

Re: Drag&drop behavior differs from Windows, leads to data loss

Yeah, this is a show-stopper for me because I will forget at some point that WinSCP is behaving differently and I will lose files.

I installed and tried WinSCP (4.2.8) for the first time yesterday and I almost lost a couple of files. I had dragged a file from the remote server to the local machine in order to have a look at it. I then deleted the local file without realising it had been moved instead of copied. Luckily, I had imported it into another application and I could recover it from that.

I think you should be able to right-click and drag too, like Windows Explorer, which would then give you a context menu so you can select copy or move.

A related issue is deleting files on the remote server. In Windows, if you select a file and press the DEL key or right-click and select delete, it moves the file to the Recylce Bin; holding shift while doing this deletes it permanently. WinSCP does this the other way round as well (though it uses the temp directory instead of the Recycle Bin).

I was dragging from the remote server to the C: drive of the local machine. That article explains, then, why it was moved instead of copied. Not knowing the mechanism, I assumed dragging from the remote server to any local drive would be considered the same as dragging from one local drive to another. After I deleted the file on the local machine, I then realised it was gone from the server, but luckily I had imported it into another application and could recover it.

I think the options outlined in the article will help me sort it all out. I'll give it a try and let you know if I have any problems.